Are Christians facing extinction on the Arab street?

[rug]

The 'panda syndrome' saw Christians protected by Arab leaders, but this relationship is in dramatic decline

Massimo Franco guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 November 2011 12.45 EDT

The killing of dozens of Coptic Christian protesters during the recent turmoil in Cairo is one of the by-products of the Arab spring – and, unfortunately, a predictable one. Secular dictatorships such as those of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and even of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gadaffi in Libya were a bloody nightmare for political dissidents. But Christian minorities felt protected from Islamic persecution and were allowed to practise their religious faith. In exchange, respecting a tacit compromise, they stood at a distance from politics. This is known in the Vatican as "the panda syndrome", after the name of those inoffensive, vegetarian bears protected by Chinese authorities, to prevent their extinction. "But when a species has to be protected, it means it's already disappearing," points out the Egyptian Jesuit Samir Khalil Samir.

Samir is an expert. Pope Benedict XVI asked him to organise the synod of Middle Eastern bishops in October 2010 in Rome. And he knows that Christian "pandas" in his land and in all the Arab world are fighting a desperate battle for survival. That's why many local Catholic bishops greeted the revolts in the Maghreb and elsewhere around the Mediterranean with open scepticism and concern. They foresaw that political progress could be matched with religious regress, and a worsening of their condition as non-Islamic citizens.

This is what seems to have happened. The new ruling classes differ from one country to the other but they tend to have in common a stronger Islamic identity. Their more extremist factions push to punish Christian minorities for what is perceived as a double original sin: being allies of former hated regimes, and being "agents of western values", although they have been living there for 2,000 years or so. The result is that the prospect of their extinction as a community is growing.

It has happened already in Iraq, due to the "Anglo-American war" started in 2003. At that time, the number of Chaldeans, the Christian Iraqis, was between 800,000 and 1.4 million. In 2009-2010, it was estimated are between 400,000 and 500,000, and rapidly decreasing. Cairo's violent repression shows a similar process is under way in Egypt as well, where they still represent roughly 10% of the population

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/nov/01/christians-arab-street-islam

[JDPriestly]

1. This is a horrible outcome. There has to be some way to prevent

the killing based on sectarian differences.

[tama]

2. Any good suggestions?

My first Great Idea was let's all be damn hippies, but that could take a while... :D

[TheMadMonk]

3. My take: Christian minorities were protected because it suited...

...Mubarak and Sadam to keep the United States happy.

Once the United States kicked them to the kerb, local sentiment took over. And I strongly suspect that the PTB's expected these popgroms would take place when they set about overturning the political climate in the Middle East. Perhaps even expect their suffering to motivate US and European Christians to demand "something be done". George Bush called it a Crusade (very clearly after the medieval model).

So I can't say I particularly blame the Muslims for their attacks. Christians have been trying to destroy them in God's name for over 900 years, without letup. And I see very little evidence that the goals of Christian powerbrokers are any bloody different today.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Even though the Christian communities in Egypt and Iraq go back to the earliest days

of Christianity in the Middle East and have been minorities (and not even powerful minorities) since those countries went Islamic some 1200 years ago?

[darkstar3]

5. They were minorities before then, as well.

In that part of the world, they've never been anything but.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. My response was to the implication that indigenous Christians in the Middle East

were "power brokers" or persecuted the Muslims.

[demosincebirth]

7. The Roman Empire embraced Christianity during the reign of Constantine and

became the official state religion during his time. It was the major religion of the Empire until it broke apart. Two hundred years later Islam started to sprout.

[JDPriestly]

10. Muslims have been just as brutal toward non-Muslims, probably

more so than Christians over the years.

Muslims have equal rights in the US. There are lots of Muslims all over Christian Europe. In the West, no one objects if Christians convert to the Muslim religion.

It is against the law for Muslims to convert to Christianity in some Muslim countries. Pretty unheard of in the West.

I think overall that modern Christians are more tolerant than moderate Muslims with the exception perhaps of Indonesia and a couple of other countries in which religious freedom is respected fairly well.

[TheMadMonk]

12. Enough with the totally irrelevant Potempkin examples.

Muslims in America have the same "equal rights" as Latinos and African Americans:- What good Christian white people chose to allow them when someone might be watching.

In the West (not that very long ago) Christians killed other Christians for being the wrong sort of Christian. Christianity in Africa today still recruits at gunpoint, with threats, by refusing needed charity and medicine.

Right in the middle of the current conflict good Christian Soldiers have killed their own for converting to Islam.

Christian attacks on Islam HAVE NOT STOPPED in the best part of a millenium.

I can understand them finally jacking up and saying "Enough!" Particularly when the bully still slapping them around wears their "Christianity" on their sleeve.

[JDPriestly]

13. To the extent that you are saying that every fanatical religion attacks

other religions you are right. But in the end they are not different. Try being a Christian or a Jew in Saudi Arabia.

I remember in the 1970s, the boss of the small oil company I worked for asked me as an American living in a foreign country whether I was Jewish. I'm not, but the reason he asked was disheartening: seems a letter was circulating asking oil companies to fire Jewish employees based on their religion. My boss said that the request was from one or more Middle Eastern oil-producing countries. I never quite believed his story, but ......

I also interviewed for an American company. At the end of the interview, the woman who interviewed me said, out of the blue with no context, "Everyone here goes to church on Sunday?" She then stared at me with her eyes wide open and her eyebrows raised, and I kind of lamely answered, "That's nice." I'm actually Unitarian and did not want to discuss religion with her or any other employer.

At the time of that incident, I thought the interviewer was very strange. I couldn't figure out why she said that. Many years later, I realized that she was trying to find out whether I was Jewish. Seems incredible but religious discrimination like race discrimination occurs everywhere. And that is one of the reasons that I am a Unitarian. We do not discriminate against other religions. No religious wars for us! Everyone has the right to their own religious beliefs in my view.

[Exultant Democracy]

6. Muslims marched in unity with Christians aginst these actions by the Mubarick military hangover

The Arab spring is far from over and the military junta in Egypt does not represent the future of the country.

"Muslims, go on, tell your fellow Christians that we are all in the same boat."

"Muslims and Christians, hand-in-hand," they called out.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-egypt-march-unity-idUSTRE79D4VD20111014?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[demosincebirth]

8. Much is in that article that didn't happen. and much that did, isn't. Can't

give links but I know that I've read Muslims attacking Christian churches in many areas around Cairo after the fall of Mubarak.

[Exultant Democracy]

11. Many muslims take the Koran seriously and the it's commandment to protect the dhimmi

I heard about the unity march when it happened and I also heard about the human shield that Muslims from the Arab spring movement used to protect their christian brothers.

My main point being that this article is very one sided and tried to conflate the actions of the military junta leftovers with the popular uprising. Obviously thee are and will always be bad actors on both sides but this anti-Muslim against the arab spring movement is at best extremely premature since it will take a few years for us to know how this shakes out.

[demosincebirth]

14. I don't know much about the Koran, but I do know , as I read History of that era, that more

Christian blood has been shed, excluding the Crusades which equal amount blood was shed. The exception is only when dictators ruled those countries. Though out recent years when these guys (call them what you may) Saddam Husein, Mubarak, Qaddafi and Assad. were the only times in recent history that the minority Christians were able to practice the faith freely.